Current Sermon Series
(Videos are in order from oldest to newest)
"Hindsight is 2020"
After enduring a year like none other before, we’re all beginning 2021 with a passionate desire, with a driving hope that things will be different, that we can be different…but are we willing to do more than just hope and wish? The fulfilled life that we’re all looking for is the product of much more than just changing out the calendars on our walls and looking forward to the return of some semblance of normalcy. It’s about creating a new normal – it’s about letting the Spirit lead us to a deeper faithfulness and a more active faith.
During these weeks, we will allow 2020 to hold an uncomfortable mirror to our faces: confronting us with some of the painful but necessary lessons that we should have learned…but may need to be reminded of. Looking through a theological lens, we will reflect up the journey of 2020 and let it inform the way we follow Jesus in 2021.
2020 Worship Series
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After an intense, whirlwind year of uncertainty, stress, and fear, this Advent we will be exploring the “good news of great joy” that the herald angels came to announce. It’s joy: joy that God became one of us. Joy that we’re never alone. It’s the triumphant joy that, in faith, something new / Someone new comes to be born in us. Instead of going into survival mode – getting wrapped up in attending the parties, finding/buying/giving the perfect gifts, decorating the cookies, and doing everything we’re “supposed” to do, doing all that’s expected and whirling about us…we want to relish the incredible, critical poignancy of the season: the truth that a Savior has been born unto us…a truth (that God loved/loves us so much that He became one of us) that brings a calming joy to everything that’s whirling around and inside of us. It is our prayer that these weeks of worship will lead us to celebrating a truly Christ-centered Christmas. |
As we enter into the “home stretch” of this thoroughly bizarre year, we will take the month of November to explore some of the lessons that 2020 has taught us: how we are called to “stretch” ourselves to live out the Gospel’s demands on our lives. With Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon (and with tensions and isolation at critical levels), we will spend each weekend looking at the practical implications of following the way of Jesus Christ. |
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In this season of uncertainty, exhaustion, and screen fatigue – when we’re just as likely to be run down as we are to be fired up – we’re going to explore the notion that we’ been put on earth to be USED UP (used for “upward purposes”). During these weeks, we will consider what our responses/responsibilities really are to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. As such, we will lift up the duties (and opportunities) that each of us have to pursue excellence as stewards of God’s goodness through faithful generosity in every aspect of life (being makers, not just consumers): coming to see giving (not just financial) as a primarily spiritual act that ensures the health of the whole – our sacred responsibilities to God, the community, the world, the lost, and each other. |
Continuing a years-long tradition, this September, we will engage in a deep study of Paul’s “race” metaphor (as found in his second letter to his protégé, Timothy). Profound in its meaning and incisive/practical in its application, these verses provide a wonderful springboard for us to consider the real rigors of the Christian faith. During this three-week series, we will explore the commonalities, possibilities, and the difficulties each of us in the human race have living a life worthy of the Gospel. |
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Loosely inspired by Simon Sinek’s book, The Infinite Game, this three-week series will examine the reality of the games that we play: our games with God, with ourselves, and with each other. More, it will explore how to bring our unnecessary/unhealthy game-playing to an end – in pursuit of a fulfilled/fulfilling and life-changing faith: becoming more earnest, authentic, and deeply-committed followers of the way of Jesus Christ. |
We will be addressing the increasingly pervasive element of fear that’s gripping our community and culture. During this two-week series, we will address the heart of the Enemy’s assault called “fear” and practical, biblical steps towards fearlessness, courage, and the abundant life of faith. |
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Looking through the lens of the past several months, we will take the month of July to explore the wake and the reality of things we’ve been in a pattern of taking for granted. |
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The Roman numeral for “Forty,” we will finish out the month of May by studying the significance of the number XL (40) as found throughout Scripture. Used 146 times in the Bible, the number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or maturing…a period from which growth and seasoning springs. |
This series revolves around the Apostle Paul’s contention that contentment is the key to the “good life”: a life in which we are free to enjoy God and the things of God – joy, peace, love, etc. |
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Found within Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we read of the beautiful fruit God desires to grow in our lives: the Fruit of the Spirit. Each week, we will focus on one of these virtues by examining the danger that comes when we allow that gracious fruit to rot. |
A profound and strikingly humorous reflection of the human condition, we will use these weeks to explore the modern-day call of faith – our active engagement in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. |
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In an age of “mailing it in” and “phoning it in,” as we’re over-committed and under-performing, we will take a self-evaluative look at our lives, jobs, families, and (most importantly) our faith to discover (and pare back) all the distractions that abound. |
